Passage of a comprehensive national climate policy will create jobs, increase personal income and boost all U.S. states' gross domestic product, without raising energy costs to the consumer, according to a new national economic impact study performed at the University of California-Berkeley.READ MORE

As part of the Obama Administration's efforts to spur renewable energy production, the U.S. Department of Treasury announced Oct. 27 the allocation of $2.2 billion in Clean Renewable Energy Bonds for 805 recipients across the country. Funded by the Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008 and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, these energy bonds help government agencies, public power providers and cooperative electric companies obtain lower cost financing for clean energy development projects.READ MORE

The U.S. DOE held a Webinar Oct. 22 to help explain criteria of the Financial Institution Partnership Program, a program designed to work with leading financial institutions to provide guarantees for loans by those institutions supporting commercial technology renewable energy projects. During the Webinar, which is the first in a series of FIPP-related Webinars, DOE Program Officer Douglas Shultz explained the process of FIPP and how it works with lead lending institutes and applicants.READ MORE

International defense and security technology company QinetiQ has been awarded a $1.5 million contract from the U.S. Army to develop a portable version of a trash-to-energy system that can turn food, medical and sanitary waste, paper, plastic and any other waste that may be generated on an army base into electricity. PyTEC is able to operate constantly by allowing for unsorted waste to be continually fed into the automated closed-loop system. The unit can process up to 100 kilograms of municipal solid waste per hour, and also reclaims up to 500 kilowatts of the thermal energy from the waste per hour, a proportion of which will be used to power the system.READ MORE

New Jersey-based ChemPro Group LLC recently announced the formation of an alliance with Missouri-based Mo-Fuel (Rural Bio-waste) to commercialize a patented feedstock-flexible cellulosic ethanol process.READ MORE

The pace is picking up for Flambeau River BioFuel LLC's project to convert Wisconsin wood into biomass-based diesel. Honeywell Process Solutions announced Oct. 26 that it has been selected to supply and integrate the automation equipment for what it called the largest second-generation green diesel plant in the United States. The next big step is expected to happen next week with the commissioning of the pilot facility to turn Wisconsin wood into biofuel and waxes, according to Bob Byrne, president of Flambeau River BioFuels LLC, Park Falls, Wis. The pilot testing is being done at the Southern Research Institute facility in Durham, N.C.READ MORE

Los Angeles-based OriginOil Inc. has achieved 97 percent efficiency of algal oil extraction from its low-energy Single Step Extraction process. Typical extraction efficiency from algae cells is 94 percent to 97 percent. "Ninety-seven percent efficiency is outstanding," said OriginOil chief scientist Vikram Pattarkine. "This is about as good as it gets." Efficiency rates are determined by how much lipid is in the biomass to start with and how much is extracted. If it were equated to soybean extraction, he said, it would mean about 29 milliliters of oil would be extracted from a seed containing 30 milliliters. OriginOil has optimized its Single Step Extraction process in a long-running collaboration with an advanced research lab at California State University.READ MORE